The fifteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) will be the first season to appear on FX as part of the recently signed deal between the Ultimate Fighting Championship and FOX network. As part of the deal, the reality competition series TUF will now move from it's original home channel SpikeTV over to FX where it will be reformatted and presented to an even bigger audience. After weeks of speculation, UFC President Dana White announced via Twitter Tuesday, December 6 that the head coaching positions for the newest season in the series will be reigning Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and #1 contender Urijah Faber. Like past seasons the two will coach opposite of each other leading their own teams of UFC hopefuls who will compete for a chance to earn a six-figure contract with the UFC. In this fifteenth season there will again be two weight classes competing making it one six-figure contract on the line for each division. The competitors will either be competing as Welterweights (170-156lbs) or as Lightweights (155-146lbs). The season premiere is scheduled for March 9, 2012 with a two-hour episode starting at 9PM ET/PT that is likely to show contestants competing for a spot in the tournament. Starting the following week the show will air at 10PM ET/PT and will remain on that time slot for the remainder of the season over thirteen weeks. While the original format and production of the show had the tournament happen over several weeks where everything was recorded from what would occur in the house where the competitors stayed and the fights as part of the tournament. Over the several weeks the fighters competed while being secluded away from the outside world cut off from television, internet access, and unable to communicate with anybody outside the house with the exception of serious situations a fighter need be contacted for. After filming, the competitors would be kept under confidentiality unable to give away fight results and reveal who would be competing in the finale. For the new seasons that will be featured on FX, the series will be reformatted where instead of seeing prerecorded tournament bouts, each week the bouts will be aired live towards the end of the episode. To showcase the fighters competing in the featured bout each episode, footage prior to the lie bout will resemble the format done for "UFC Primetime" where the two fighters will be emphasized to get to know them specifically so fans can learn about their history and waht drives them in their efforts to become a fighter in the UFC and a future champion. As an added aspect of reformatting in the series, live play-by-play commentating will be introduced for the first time to the show where as before there was nobody commentating on the fights and all viewers would here was the action in the fight, the coaches advising their fighters, and other fighters on the side cheering on their teammate in action. Assuming one of the two roles in commentating during the fights will be recently signed analyst Jon Anik who previously worked on ESPN's MMA Live and also served as a play-by-play commentator before for BellatorFC during their first season. The second play-by-play analyst has yet to be named, but they are expected to be a former or still competing fighter from the UFC.
Cruz and Faber will fight each other after the conclusion of the season for the Bantamweight title in what will be the third and final match between the two with the score even between them 1-1. Faber earned the first victory years ago in 2007 when the then undefeated Cruz challenged for him for the WEC Featherweight title and suffered his first professional loss with a Rnd1 Submission. Including this win, Faber would become the longest reigning WEC champion in the promotion's history. Cruz then dropped down in weight to compete in the Bantamweight division where he has maintained an undefeated 9-0 record winning the WEC Bantamweight title in early 2010 and defended it twice before being crowned the inaugural UFC Bantamweight champion. Cruz made his UFC debut defending his new title for the first time in his rematch with Faber in July 2010 where he was awarded the Unanimous Decision victory evening the score between them and proving that he had improved greatly since their first encounter. Following the that exciting bout that earned Fight of the Night, Cruz made his second UFC title defense against Demetrious Johnson where he used his greater size and strength to control the fight and earn the Unanimous Decision. To get back into title contention, Faber fought former WEC Bantamweight champion Brian Bowles in November where he put on one of his best overall performances earning the Rnd2 Submission win. With forty wins and twenty-three title fights between them, both fighters are deserving of coaching positions both for their skill sets, their elite status, and for making a promotable grudge match that can attract viewership and new fans to the sport.
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